MH-COP-SEX CHANGE

advertisement

Press Trust of India

May 24, 2018

UPDATED: May 24, 2018 20:20 IST

Beed woman cop to undergo sex-change surgery tomorrow

Mumbai, May 24 (PTI) A 29-year-old woman police
constable from Maharashtra's Beed district will undergo a sex
change surgery at St George's Hospital in south Mumbai
tomorrow, a doctor treating her said today.

The constable Lalita Salve, who prefers to be called
Lalit, had met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in March and
sought the state government's permission to undergo the
surgery. The government recently gave its nod for it.

Salve received a letter from the state home department
on Sunday allowing her to go on leave to undergo the surgery.
After receiving the letter, she got herself admitted in the
state-run St George's Hospital on Tuesday.

"Tests were performed on Salve, including an X-ray
scan, ECG examination and blood tests, to know her medical
fitness for the surgery. She is confident and feeling much
better," Arjun Ujagare, her maternal uncle who travelled to
Mumbai from Beed with her, said.

"Plastic surgeon Dr Rajat Kapur and his team will
perform the surgery," said a doctor at the hospital.

According to Dr Kapur, Salve's operation should not be
called a sex reassignment surgery as Salve is already
biologically a male.

"Salve was born with small external genitalia that her
parents mistook for a female's and brought the child up
accordingly. Tests done in the past few years have revealed
Salve was genetically male with XY sex chromosome," he said.

Dr Kapur has been treating Salve for over a year when
he was posted in J J Hospital in Byculla. As he is now posted
in St George's Hospital, Salve decided to get admitted there.

Salve had met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in
March for permission to undergo the surgery. She had also sent
an application to the state Director General of Police (DGP),
requesting permission.

She had earlier approached the state police department
to allow her leave for the operation. The department had then
turned down her plea as the eligibility criteria for men and
women constables are different, including height and weight.

In November last year, she had moved the Bombay High
Court seeking a direction to the DGP to grant her leave for
the surgery. However, the high court had directed her to
approach the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal since it was
a service matter.

She had also consulted doctors at the state-run J J
hospital in Mumbai for the sex reassignment surgery.

Salve, born in June 1988, noticed changes in her body
about four years ago and underwent medical tests, which
confirmed the presence of Y chromosome in her body, according
to her petition filed in the high court.

While men have X and Y sex chromosomes, women have two
X chromosomes.

Doctors had said she had gender dysphoria and advised
her to undergo a sex reassignment surgery.

She was inducted in Maharashtra Police in 2010 as a
woman police constable. Salve is currently attached to Damini
Pathak, a specialised unit. Salve has said that she would like
to be re-inducted into the police as a male constable. PTI ND
NP NP NP

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from